Entertaining but slight. While the book does a great job of evoking the way a discovery of reading can really capture your spirit and become almost compulsive, the cartoonish "villains" and the heavy-handed satirical story just don't work all that well. The whole "reading changes your life" message is sort of trite and the dismissiveness of the other characters just didn't ring true to me (granted, it might be more effective to a british reader who engages with a popular conception of the Queen). Again, it's an entertaining read, and so short that the downsides are negligible, so it's worth the time, at least.

Listened on audio 2008. Read the book 2009. Joyful and abundant.
"You don't put your life into your books. You find it there."

Alan Bennett reminds us all of the benefits of reading for pleasure. His choice of the Queen as the uncommon reader is a superb exposition of the importance of reading and its potential to change even the most preordained life. While walking her rowdy dog pack, Her Majesty discovers a mobile library parked outside the palace kitchens. Not wanting to seem rude, she enters and borrows a book.

“She’d never taken much interest in reading. She read, of course, as one did, but liking books was something she left to other people. It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn’t have hobbies……. Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to avoided; preferences excluded people.”
page 6

Her first choice, by Ivy Compton-Burnett, is “a little dry” but, having been brought up, “always to finish what’s on one’s plate,” she completes the book, and borrows another. She continues to read capriciously, diversely, and for pleasure.

The Queen’s reading is a worrying concern for her private secretary; the use of Buckingham Palace gardens for occasional concerts, pop and otherwise, was in line with his aim of making the monarchy more accessible; the reading, though, makes him uneasy.

“‘I feel, ma’am, that while not exactly elitist it sends the wrong message. It tends to exclude.’

‘Exclude? Surely most people can read?’

‘They can read, ma’am, but I’m not sure that they do.’”
page 27

Undaunted, the Queen reads in her carriage, holding a book in one hand and waving to please the crowds with the other. She reads for pleasure and yet:

“pleasure had always taken second place to duty.”
page 30

It is not long before the seditious world of literature has the Queen examining her life and the politics of her court. For the Queen duty is everything but even duty is no longer above question.

‘I would have thought,’ said the prime minister, ‘that Your Majesty was above literature.’

‘Above literature?’ said the Queen. ‘Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.’”
page 117

As her reading progresses, she realizes it is like a muscle, responding to exercise. When she re-reads Ivy Compton-Burnett, she has a greater understanding and appreciation; she also begins to hear the writer’s unique voice..…”The novel she had once found slow now seemed refreshingly brisk, dry still but astringently so, with Dame Ivy’s no-nonsense tone……reading was, among other things, a muscle and one that she had seemingly developed.”
page 100

She could now read a novel with ease and great pleasure but this joy is tempered with the realisation that she, herself, has no voice. After a year or so of reading, the Queen puts books aside and decides to write.

“Reading was not doing, that had always been the trouble. And old though she was she was still a doer.”
page 101

She announces her intention to write a book at an informal birthday get together for her eightieth. The announcement is met with universal dismay by her entourage as she proposes, not a facile reminiscence but,
“…something more thoughtful.”

At this, the prime minister loses all taste for the champagne and slips along the corridor to the toilet, where he gets on his mobile phone to the attorney general. On his return, the prime minister advises the Queen that the monarch has never published a book. The Queen disputes this and cites several examples, including her uncle: the Duke of Windsor.

“Furnished with the advice of the attorney general on this very point, the prime minister smiled and almost apologetically raised his objection. ‘Yes ma’am, I agree, but the difference, surely, is that His Royal Highness wrote the book as Duke of Windsor. He could only write it because he had abdicated.’”
page 121

The ending line of this wonderful romp is a final testament to Bennett’s skill as a dramatist: he knows exactly when to stop.

‘Oh, did I not say that?’ said the Queen. ‘But…….why do you think you’re all here?’”

General Fiction Novella
Published in 2007 by Faber and Faber ( )

A funny thin book for just in between. Fun to see the Queen finding a book in the driving library and then getting hooked to reading.

And the book also made me think about the low number of people that are readers.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/1... ( )

A quirky little book, certainly, about the Queen of England's late-in-life discovery of the joy of reading. You could easily read this in one sitting, or enjoy small pieces of it here & there (as I did) & gain a chuckle at the typical British humor throughout. I was quite curious how such a little novelette would end, and was pleasantly surprised at the rather abrupt, but appropriate, ending. ( )

Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader is a surprisingly interesting novella chronicling the Queen of England's (fictional) realization of the vast world of books and reading. If she were anyone else but the Queen, this might be a wonderful and pleasant journey - the discovery of a traveling library practically at her doorstep, receiving book recommendations from a young man working with her kitchen staff, sparking bookish discussions with everyone she meets - sounds delightful, right? Well, despite having a marvelous time, the Queen's advisers and staff decide that her reading would only serve to show favoritism and might make some people excluded from the Queen. These nuts go to great lengths to halt the Queen's reading, by hiding her books and having them misdirected at airports - it really is crazy!

I really enjoyed reading The Uncommon Reader (Ha! that sounds funny!) The characters were unique and quirky - from the Queen herself, a self described opsimath; to her politically correct aide, New Zealander Sir Kevin, forever concerned with the negative impact that the Queen's increased literacy might have on the Monarchy; to the kitchen boy turned literary advisor, the Queen's amanuensis, Norman - they are all multi-dimensional, realistic, well-written characters.

At just 120 pages, The Uncommon Reader is a quick and amusing read - easily tackled in one sitting. It is incredibly humorous in its complete absurdity, and leaves the reader alternately shaking one's head and laughing out loud. This is a book for the reader in us all. It was a joy to read, from it's hilarious beginning to it's surprising ending. You will not be disappointed! ( )